> Trish Pottersmith wrote:
> >>I was on a few "low-carb" lists but found that while the low carb
> approach seems to work for many people, they (the people on the lists) are
> not that concerned with other aspects of health.  I just cannot believe
> that eating lots of cream cheese and limiting your fruits and vegetables
> is good for you. <<

> Grant:
> I don't think it is as much "not that concerned" as it is that eating the
> carbohydrate containing foods spells disaster for many of us low carbers.
> The "fruits and vegetables" are just plain not do-able.
> <snip>

Trish:

hi Grant, I recognize you from some of the low carb lists.  I'm still
on the "technical one."

I should have clarified my statement.  I don't think poorly of
low-carb in theory but I didn't want to be on lists where most of the
discussion was centering around artificial sweeteners and microwaving
processed cheese!

I thought Neanderthin was the healthiest of the low carb plans I
researched.  I did low carb (Atkins mostly) for a few months once. ( I
scored off the charts on the CAD book test.)   I felt really weird
eating all that dairy (which isn't to say that I didn't LIKE it!) even
though I did lose a little weight and if I really avoided carbs the
insulin thing seemed under control.

After a while, my gut feelings was that regardless of the above,
I did not feel like it was a nutritious diet.  I got into Neanderthin
because it seemed healthier but I just couldn't handle all that meat,
having been a vegetarian for so long.  I felt my stools were
not looking healthy either.  It was like a neon sign going off in
my head after a while "too much meat..too much meat..too much
meat."  I had also spent years before this fighting a candida
problem.  Neanderthin basically reminded me of my old raw foods
days.  So, I started digging out my raw food books again.  My
inner voice told me to hell with all the theory about Candida,
insulin, etc.  I started eating the way I believed was healthy -
some fruits, lots of green vegetables (low-carb veggies you might
say), sprouts, nuts and occasional concentrated foods like raw goat's
cheese or some tofu.  It's not high carb but it's not low fat either.
I am still experimenting but the main thing was I found I could eat
fruit!!  I did not have blood sugar swings or any candida reactions. Now,
this is just me. I am not suggesting that anybody else on the low carb
lists do this.  But I still do not believe that eating like Atkins would
have you with lots of cooked dairy is the best way to eat.  I do think it
is much healthier than most SAD'ers eat, which was the point I was
originally trying to make - that cutting out all the crap is one
of the more important things and that the protein/carb/fat percentage
is a personal variance.

I am just not a fan of most processed foods, which is probably why
Neanderthin made more sense to me.   Believe me, Grant, I don't
deny the success that many people have with Atkins et al.  It
is of great interest to me that people can get such similar results
from such different ways of eating, and that was my real point in bringing
it up.  I also got a little tired of the rah rah dogmatism of low carb.
It reminds me of the "to vegan or not to vegan" thing...well, and
politics, race relations and any other inclusion/exclusion group phenomena
in human society.  I am tired of people having to cling to philosophies.
I rebelled against being called a vegetarian because I felt that
if I wanted to eat meat sometime, I would.  I didn't want to be
pigeon holed into some "type."  Unfortunately, it seems to be part
of our nature to have to be defined.  I'm still rebelling though!

Tom, thanks for the references on Bubba Free John.  Did a little
reading on him on the web...pretty interesting guy.  I'll look
forward to hunting down that book.

Trish Pottersmith